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Bertram/Behind the Scenes
Background Information Television Series Bertram is a fictional narrow gauge saddletank tender locomotive created by Britt Allcroft and David Mitton. In 1998, Bertram was introduced in the fifth series of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. He only appeared in the episode, Toby's Discovery with no dialoge and the music video, Percy's Seaside Trip via stock-footage. For ease of filming, the fifth series introduced larger-scale versions of the narrow gauge engines and from the sixth series to the twelfth these larger models were used almost exclusively. Due to budgeting reasons, no large scale model of Bertram was built and this can be attributed as to why he never appeared after the fifth series . This makes him one of the few characters to remain absent since his introduction the fifth series. Like Duke, Bertram is based off the engine Prince, a 0-4-0ST+T engine on the Ffestiniog Railway at Porthmadog, North Wales. File:Prince.JPG|Bertram's basis, Prince Behind the Scenes O gauge model (Small scale) Bertram's model was recycled from Duke's model, which was custom built to run on O gauge track to the Gauge 1 Scale Standard. It was repainted using glossy car body paint and lined with red Letraline pin-striping tape . Bertram's wheels were sourced from Slater's 10 Spoke Wantage Tramway driving wheels and 10 Spoke LNER 02 Bogie Wheels for the tender. These wheels were used on an O gauge locomotive chassis. Bertram used rods directly lifted from an OO scale Triang Hall class with little modification . Bertram was only ever depicted with one happy face-mask. This face was actually recycled from Smudger, another narrow gauge engine. Three other facial expressions were initially made for Smudger that appeared on-screen, but were never worn on Bertram. These faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mould . File:BertramFaceGuide.png|Bertram's faces The model had a motor to power it mounted inside the chassis as well as an eye mechanism. There was no room to fit a smoke mechanism or the battery and receiver needed for the R/C eyes. Wires connecting to the battery, servo and receiver were usually hidden off camera or carried in his tender behind the engine. The eye mechanism used servos mounted in the cab; the servos were hidden by blacking out the cab doors and windows. Metal rods went from the servos in the cab to a bracket in the smoke box behind the faceplate, one for up and down movement and one for left and right movement. This limited the range of movement of the eyes as well as being cumbersome and jamming often . File:BertramModel.jpg|Bertram's model File:Bertram2001.jpg|A side-view of Bertram's model in 2001 Twitter user (credit to Twitter user TomsProps) According to Britt Allcroft, Bertram was supposed to be a tank engine—as in, carrying his coal in a bunker as opposed to having a tender for it. However, Duke's model and Smudger's face-mask were recycled to create Bertram due to financial difficulties . File:SmudgerModel.png|Bertram's face mask was recycled from Smudger File:MainDukeModel.png|Bertram's model was recycled from Duke File:DukeModelRear.png After the events of the fifth series, Bertram's model was later reverted back to Duke in 2004. In 2018, the model (as Duke) was purchased and restored by Twitter user ThomasTankMerch . File:Duke%27sCurrentModel.jpg|Duke's model now owned by ThomasTankMerch References Category:Behind the Scenes Category:Images of Bertram Category:Images from behind the scenes